Festival Profile

Founded in 1982, Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF) is Iran’s largest annual film festival held in Tehran. It is an event that celebrates cultural exchange, displays creative achievements of highly acclaimed cineastes and pays tribute to quality local and international films. Since its establishment, Fajr International Film Festival has played a vital role in the development of the Iranian Cinema. Every year, veteran directors and new filmmakers devotedly present their works in the festival.

Over the years, Fajr has been honored by numerous great film figures who have also worked closely with the festival as respectable Jury Members, such as Volker Schlondorff, Krzysztof Zanussi, Robert Chartoff, Semih Kaplanoglu, Bruce Beresford, Percy Adlon, Paul Cox, Shyam Benegal, Bela Tarr, Jan Troell, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Elia Suleiman, Agnieszka Holland, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Rustam Ibragimbekov, just to name a few among other influential figures.

Furthermore, a few of the most unforgettable and groundbreaking films, made by great filmmakers in the prime of their career, that were honored and awarded in different sections of the festival include, MABOROSI NO HIKARI by Hirokazu Kore-eda, LA PROMESSE by Dardenne Borthers, CLOUDS OF MAY by Nuri Bulge Ceylan, 23 by Hans-Christian Schmid, RESSOURCES HUMAINES by Laurent Cantet, NAPOLA by Dennis Gansel, THE RETURN by Andrey Zvyagintsev, LIVES OF THE OTHERS by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck and so forth.

During different editions of Fajr, brilliant auteur filmmakers such as Costa-Gavras, Francesco Rosi, Theo Angelopoulos, Mario Monicellli, Moustapha Akkad, Darius Khondji, etc… have taken part in the festival and have been presented with lifetime achievement awards.